After my project supervisor meeting there were various changes and additions which we discussed. So I began this entry after out meeting adjusting various aspects of my quality plan, risk management plan and project backlog. A big thing I changed was in my various sprints, I switched my digital prototype game to a should, and specific aspects of the game to coulds, instead my digital demonstration is now a must as agreed in my meeting. If I have time further on in the project I can definitely come back to it and progress my work further. These adjustments to my burndown chart is deceiving though, since all of the totalled points include optional should and coulds regarding my digital game (which I may or may not even make depending on the time constraints), it shows that I’m working much further behind then I am in actuality. If you count the sections of making the physical game and digital demonstration, I’m working on schedule ready to be finished by the assignment hand-in. Here’s a screenshot of the graph showing the situation (where as you can see, a lot of ‘possible’ outcomes take up more points than the definite ones):
I updated risk plan showing not only prevention methods, but also mitigation techniques as well to damage control any accidents which may happen. For example, I continuously add dates to when I backed up my work to prevent data loss in an accident, and if an accident were to happen I would be able to restore my files from either a USB device or cloud storage service. I will be updating this regularly from now on too, if any of these identified incidents do occur as well as dates to when I take action on things (like backing up my files to a safe location.)
This is the first week where I had a playable product to show and physically play with. There are a few components missing, like not having individual characters at this stage (with me using generic counters instead for the time being and everyone being equal), but the board is still in a very playable state. I printed the board, tokens and chance cards onto a firm card material, which makes picking things up a lot easier than simple A4 paper. For the peer feedback with this current version of the game I got six people to play a full game of the board as a test (played by me, Isaac, Ben, Jon, Clare and Jason, with a picture of the board with all the pieces as they were being cut out below). I also got these people to play the game for any suggestions they had, and I wrote down notes as we played the game with some suggestions on how to make the game more fun and engaging. Here are the testing results!
Ben Musgrave suggested the day before: “Wouldn't it be more fun in your board game if when you were battling you dealt the difference in damage, so if the opponent rolled 5 and you rolled 3 they would deal 2 damage instead of 5, it makes your roll matter”. However, after playing the game with this rule in place it actually ended up slowing the pace of the game right down. Because everyone starts with 10 HP, and the loser of a fight gets knocked back only one space, most people would continually fight each other back and forth in a tedious manner until someone lost, which got very frustrating at points. To remedy this, in the future the winner of a fight will directly deal the damage they rolled on the dice, and the loser of the fight will be pushed back to any of their captured bases or the starting area. This will help break up the monotony of continuous combat, and adds another layer of strategy when players are deciding whether they want to fight or not.
Once the game was finished I compiled various suggestions on paper and will talk about the major ones here, and what I will do to amend the issue. A big point people made is making it easier to keep track of times when you miss multiple turns. For example, when you’re capturing a base you miss the next go, and you’re free to leave after that. The problem is people can easily forget how long they’ve waited for. To fix this issue, we came up with a plan: on the next turn after a player begins the capture that they’re motionless for, put one of your team’s capture pieces next to the tile. Then on the following turn when you’re free to leave, move that piece onto the tile as you go. This works as a clear indicator as to how much longer is left until an area is secured, since if a capture piece isn’t directly on the tile you’ll know there’s still another turn left.
There are various quality-of-life improvements which were suggested too, like having a designated section to put the deck of cards and also when two allies are fighting together, they both roll a dice vs the other player who only wins 1. If the solo player wins the fight though they’ll deal double damage to both enemies. This is also a very clever system to promote teamwork, while also giving the singular player a glimmer of hope in a battle that there’s still a chance to turn things around. As an extra rule Jason came up with for more advanced players, there could even be a mechanic that involves teams raiding the enemy starting areas. This would help flesh out the game’s mechanics, while also giving advanced players another goal to work towards if they wish.
Here’s a picture of the whole notes page I wrote down, listing some of the smaller details people picked up on:
Overall this feedback was incredibly helpful towards my game’s development, as it allowed me to get a range of opinions midway through development which will help shift it into become a much more balanced and designed game. I’ve already started adjusting the game’s official rulebook with some of these changes, and will see how they match up to the research I’ll now be conducting.
Lastly I decided to user test my own game, after now officially playing the game myself I can make my own evaluations on it. I have to say it’s very fun to play with a group of friends, and the team-based strategy element can lead to some very humorous suggestions. As other people suggested though the combat in the state it was in was fairly monotonous to go through after a while, as people constantly kept engaging in fights with each other it became quite a chore. Fortunately some of the suggestions in the feedback will help mitigate this main issue with the game.
One other element I felt was missing during the user testing was the depth of gameplay, which is where the unfinished character classes come in. Currently every player character is exactly the same, but once I introduce different characters into the mix with various skills and weaknesses the base gameplay will get much more exciting, with a lot more possible strategies. Likewise I feel that there should be a larger variety of chance cards in the mix, as having 10 good and 10 bad cards each with different effects could get a bit extreme with some of the effects they have (like resetting the positions of every player on the board). Because of this I will develop some more cards to be added alongside the current ones with more subtle effects (like adding 2 onto your next dice roll instead of being on a much larger scale), in order to make those more powerful cards rarer to find and thus, more rewarding to the player, giving them much more endogenous value and keeping the game’s flow channel high with bursts of thrill and excitement.
Following this testing I decided to research some more relevant and technical board games with a similar theme to mine, which are focused on capturing and conquering. This week involves my research into the games Settlers of Catan and Pandemic, and how I could utilise some of their base gameplay mechanics and fit them into my own board game! Before I begin my gameplay analysis though, I will conduct some more research into what makes a good board game. According to published author (Selinker, 2012.), who wrote the Book to Board Game Design, there are various things to keep in mind during development. A big thing they mentioned was knowing what you were aiming for and focusing on that, whether it’s a kiddy game for children or a strategic puzzler for hardened board game players, your game needs to focus on its audience and try to not alienate them with its concept. You need to respect the time and audience of everything you do, from visual presentation (a child wouldn’t want a realistic and horrific board with scary themes), while also making the rules clear without handholding them. Nobody wants to read paragraphs upon paragraphs of text in a rulebook, however making them simple to understand without insulting the intelligence of your audience can go a long way in making a successful product. Lastly a board game ideally should include its own gimmick or unique trait, something to make it stand out from the crowd and not only get noticed, but to make the game generally feel fresh and fun to play. This is a concept I’ve been focusing on since the start of the project, as I’ve constantly tried to add new ideas from myself and peer feedback, while also removing the idea that in practise just don’t work very well.
(Marais, 2013)
Now onto the gameplay journal, and the first game I will discuss is Settlers of Catan. This is a multiplayer board game This game has a similar premise to Monopoly in the fact it tasks players to build houses/settlements to win, in order to gain control over the island Catan. This game has more of a technical mindset and focus compared to Monopoly, with the genius idea of the game even being randomly created at the start of every match, with different tiles representing parts of the island being placed in a honeycomb shaped grid (with these tiles having different properties). This make no two playthroughs feel the same, and helps give the game more longevity than other popular board games, as matches rarely feel the same and the flow channel is increased since players never know what to expect next.
The game’s main draw is its bartering system, as players can haggle with each other in order to trade for resources like wood and sheep, which increase and decrease in value as various events unfold. This is kicked forward where some resources aren’t even obtainable to certain players, making trading a compulsory part of the gameplay where you need to trade to win, but you also benefit your enemies in the process! This appeals to the game’s more adult and sophisticated board game enthusiast target audience, and when it comes to the various bartle types the game appeals to, socialisers are the ones who benefit the most from this type of gameplay, since they revel in communication and bartering.
Settlers of Catan’s endogenous value lies in the various buildings you can make (like houses and settlements), and as they improve your empire gradually gets more formidable. The game combines an area capture mechanic from Risk with the buildings and upgrades from Monopoly. Considering my game also borrows concepts from both games, it’s good to see what Settlers of Catan does well. Another interesting twist the game puts on this mechanic is that players can buy as many different items that they can afford, as long as they have the space to put them onto the board. It really helps balance the game so people can’t just hoard belongings as they save them for a rainy day, and instead must strategize for the short and long term, and plan what items they need right at that time.
The game has even been ported to iOS devices and also to the PC. It keeps a lot of the base gameplay in tact of building and conquering, but streamlines all of the menus and processes to be more fitting to a game with touch or mouse controls. Overall though the game’s widespread popularity among the board game world is evidence that it’s a strong title, and its deep, competition gameplay mechanics combined with the fact it’s randomly generated each time you play will make this game a popular household choice for years. There are aspects I can take away from it for my own board game, like adding variety and trading between players, which are mechanics to consider for my own game in order to increase the longevity of the product.
(blah2, 2015)
Next I’ll move onto the game Pandemic, which looks and plays similarly to Risk (in the fact the board is the real world map and the gameplay is focused on capturing and conquering), while still being a much more obscure and niche title. The game’s main hook is that it’s actually a cooperative game, where all of the players work together as they travel around the globe to win. So far every game I’ve looked at previously has a completely competitive edge to it, but in this game the 2-4 players must achieve the game’s main goal of curing the world and all of the 4 diseases which are plaguing it (all of which are colour coordinated, showcasing the game’s use of semiotics for player feedback and recognition).
Each player takes a different role at the start of the game (such as a scientist or quarantine specialist, and each character has their own traits and abilities similar to my game) along with a deck of cards (which act as the player’s main source of endogenous value since they can make or break the tide of the game), and different ‘infection’ and ‘outbreak’ counters which are dotted around the map. These places are connected to each other, and the players have to ensure things don’t get out of hand as the infection continues to spread. Once all of these disease have been cured though, the players instantly win. It helps bring a greater sense of excitement to the game’s flow channel, as horror or victory could be just around the corner and the player never knows what to expect next.
There are various elements to the gameplay here that makes it very strategic (like Settlers of Catan). From players sharing their research/findings as they move around the board, building areas that research these disease to discovering cures. It doesn’t have the random sense of variety that Settlers of Catan has (since the board and places are always the same being set on Earth, and aren’t randomised). Since there are also three different ways to lose the game, it can cause quite a disruption among allies as they begin to argue as things don’t go their way. This social element is deviously woven into the balance of the game, and players need to form a solid strategy without much disagreement to come out on top.
Lastly as usual Pandemic appeals to all the various Bartle types for people who may want to play the game. Explorers will enjoy roaming around the board, Achievers can craft new cures to help them win, Socialisers can chat to allies and form coherent strategies and Killers can work towards wiping out every last virus from the map. The game caters to a variety of people who may look for different reasons when it comes to playing a game like this, and it really helps the game’s case when it comes to attracting newer players for its niche target audience, despite the game’s relative obscurity.
To conclude this game research, especially in relation to my personal feedback towards my game, was incredibly useful for me to analyse. I looked at some more obscure and niche strategy board games which involves capturing land and supressing different areas of the map, which can be strongly related back to my own game’s core concept.
Now finally I started drawing the characters. I began by drafting out all 6 characters in Illustrator (shown below) using the Pen/Brush tools with Vectors. I came in on Friday and was assisted by Dan in learning various techniques to use in the software (such as changing different styles of lines and ways to bend vectors). This shows in the quality of my work, as you scroll down through the characters they visibly get better and more detailed, as I practised my skills and improved in using the software, as an example of personal development. I will continue to make the last 4 in Illustrator, and colour them in via Photoshop next week, and will also print them out onto counters to create the character pieces for the game! These characters will also be put onto the game’s rules to make it nicer to look at for the viewer, while also being next to the description of each character and their designated abilities. Which leads me onto the finishing touches and additions for the game before I start making the digital demonstration in the game ready to be presented.
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